


Nightmare: A Douxie One-Shot

by orphan_account



Category: Tales of Arcadia (Cartoons), Wizards (ToA)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Comfort, Douxie needs a hug, Gen, Guilt, Nightmare, One-Shot, talking about feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-08
Updated: 2020-08-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:06:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25786330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: After everything that has happened, Douxie has been having nightmares. Archie decides to comfort him.
Relationships: Archie & Hisirdoux "Douxie" Casperan
Comments: 4
Kudos: 135





	Nightmare: A Douxie One-Shot

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little one-shot idea I had while rewatching Wizards. You'll be happy to know I cried on the second time watching (didn't the first time).

_“Hisirdoux, what are you doing?” Merlin demanded as he entered his tower. Said boy was trying to clean up the room with magic. His master sighed as he took control and stopped his apprentice from doing anything else. Not like he hadn’t done this before. But then again, he_ was _only trying to prove himself to be worthy to wield a staff._

_“What did I say about using magic?” Merlin pressed, staring down at the boy._

_“That it isn’t a permissible shortcut to hard work,” Hisirdoux drones on. “Please, Master! I know I can do great things! Why even teach me spells when I’m not going to use them?” he added in a pleaful tone._

_“We’ve had this conversation not too long ago, I believe,” Merlin said. He sighed, dragging his hand over his face, before setting both hands on the his apprentice’s shoulders. But then something wasn’t right; Hisirdoux could feel it flood the air like poison. But what was it exactly?_

_“You could’ve saved me!” Merlin’s voice roared in the boy’s head. The Merlin in front of him turned to black dust, leaving him alone in the cold, empty world._

_“N-No! You – you said so yourself!” Hisirdoux covered his ears as that same sentence played over and over. “You – you said there w-was nothing I-I could do!” He backed up, bumping into a wall. The broken apprentice slid down, head shaking as he tried to block out that voice. Tears streamed down his face._

_“P-p-please!” He wailed, curling up into a fetal position. “S-stop, p-please!”_

_Hisirdoux hardly noticed the room crumbling away as he continued to beg for it to stop. He fell into the void beneath the flooring, but he didn’t notice it. He just kept crying – wanting his master back._

Douxie awoke with a cold sweat, breathing heavily. His head swiveled this way and that, before realizing he was in Jim’s living room. After what went on with the Arcane Order, Douxie was going to leave to keep Nari safe, and away from said evil group’s clutches. But his friends insisted that he at least stayed a day before leaving; he complied, and Jim let him, along with Nari, stay over at his place.

“Douxie?” Archie yawned at the end of the couch, stretching. He blinked some, trying to keep back the eluding pull to slumber. Nari slightly turned as she slumbered on the floor (she had insisted to sleep there), but did not wake. “Douxie, are you alright?”

“Huh? Oh, y-yeah,” Douxie said, trying his best to make it look as if everything was fine when it definitely was not. “I’m fine, Arch. Just, uh, thought I heard something.”

Knowing it was a ruse, Archie curled on top of Douxie’s lap, purring softly. “You know you can talk to me anytime, Douxie?”

“I know, Archie,” Douxie sighed. Might as well get 'the talk’ over with. “I… had a bad dream.”

“What was in your dream?” Archie purred as Douxie stroked his head. The boy stopped petting his familiar, and sucked in shaky breath.

“M… Merlin…” Douxie looked ahead of him, not wanting to make eye contact with his animal friend. Instead of hearing Archie try to comfort him, he heard lulling purrs. He looked down to see that Archie had fallen back to sleep.

Douxie gently set the familiar next to him on the sofa. He put an arm around him as he tucked himself underneath the blanket he was using.

It was fine. It was just a… bad dream. No need to go worrying his familiar or friends. Douxie _had_ talked it out with Archie back at his father’s cave, so what was the point in talking about it again?

Douxie soon was taken hold by sleep once more, returning to his nightmares that plagued his mind.

————

“N-No…” Douxie croaked, turning over on his side. The movement startled Archie, who jumped up in fright like a cat before landing onto the ground. “P-Please… Merlin…”

“Merlin?” Archie whispered to himself, adjusting his glasses he recently put on. He watched Douxie’s face scrunched up in fear and guilt, and as the boy himself tossed on the sofa, the blanket wrapping around him even more with each turn.

“Huh?” came a voice as the owner of said sound came walking down the stairs, rubbing his tired eyes. The stairs creaked with each step the boy took. _Jim must have heard me_ , Archie concluded as his friend walked over to the two.

“What is happening?” Nari asked as she woke from her makeshift bed on the floor. She yawned and rubbed her eyes before fully coming awake. “D-Did the Arcane Order, are they…?”

“No,” Archie put her question to rest. The cat sighed, before looking back at his master. “Douxie here is have a nightmare.”

A single tear rolled down Douxie’s cheek. “M-Master, you said – you said there wasn’t anything I c-could do!” the boy pleaded, breaking the familiar’s heart.

“Shouldn’t we wake him up?” Jim asked, slightly concerned. He himself had been having nightmares, and, for that, had been talking about them with his mother and friends. But was Douxie doing that too?

“He did talk, once,” Archie answered Jim’s question. “Back at my father’s cave. He didn’t want to give up Merlin’s staff, because that was the only thing left of him… In all my nine hundred years I’ve been with him, I’ve never seen him cry like he did that day.”

The boy they were talking about suddenly sucked in a gasp as he woke up. His breathing was ragged, but became normal after seeing Jim, Nari, and Archie look at him with concern.

“I’m fine,” Douxie told them, but it didn’t work. Archie jumped onto his master’s lap, purring, “Are you alright?”

“…N-No…” was the boy’s weak answer. The cat jumped back down as Douxie pulled up his legs to his chest, resting his arms on his knees. His head rested on his arms as he looked at the couch cushions.

“You know, you can talk to us, right?” Jim comforted the wizard.

“Yeah… I know…” Douxie replied dully. He lay back down on his side on the sofa, pulling the blanket up to his shoulder.

“I think he needs time alone.” Archie concluded, hinting that Jim was no longer needed. The Trollhunter-that-now-wasn’t-a-Trollhunter obliged, and headed back to his room, Nari went back to sleeping on the floor, and Archie curled up against Douxie, waiting for him to say something.

“I miss him, Arch,” Douxie muttered with a sniff. “I miss him so much.”

“We all do,” comforted the cat. “But that doesn’t mean to beat yourself up. You couldn’t do anything, Douxie. No one could.”

“I-I know, but I…” Douxie started, trailing off, not knowing what to say. “I… I thought I could save him, but I couldn’t. And now, I don’t have anything left of him.”

“Are you sure about that?” Archie asked, getting Douxie to turn and face his familiar. “Because, right now, I see Merlin’s son and successor.”

Douxie smiled half-heartedly, and scratched behind Archie’s ear. “Thanks for that, Arch.” He told him. “I think I needed that.”

That night, Douxie dreamed of the days back in Camelot, back where a ton of happy memories were made.


End file.
